Plastic explosive stockpile stolen

LYON, France, July 19 (UPI) -- French police say they are investigating the theft of nearly 62 pounds of a general-purpose plastic explosive from a castle.

The Interior Ministry said the Semtex and a number of detonators could have been stolen a week before anyone noticed they were missing Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"The investigation has to find out how they could have been stolen," a police source told the newspaper.

"A theft of explosives used by bomb-disposal experts to destroy munitions retrieved from former battlefields has taken place," Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

She said in her statement "security failings" allowed robbers to take the items.

Anti-terror officials said they were trying to find the missing Semtex to prevent it being from used in an attack on civilians.